Explanations are Required
by MKDrouin
Summary: Rodney has a life changing experience.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Explanations Are Required - minor spoilers for Season 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone you recognize as much as I would like to own Rodney, John and the rest of the company and the mystery guest. I hope you recognize who it is or at least what fandom I am doing a crossover with. 

Author's notes: The only fanfic I have ever written before is for the Magnificent 7 and I've only ever managed to finish two stories despite the multitude of them that I have started. However, this plot bunny took hold about an hour ago and refused to go away until I wrote it down. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you think it deserves to be continued. I think that it has unexpectedly turned into a series, also I have never posted at before, so please bear with me.

Explanations are Required

If he ever got back to Earth, he was never volunteering for anything again. In fact, He thought he'd find a nice cave somewhere and turn hermit for a few decades. His hand reached toward his back before remembering the only weapons he had with him were the pistol on his hip and the knife in his boot. Cursing he quickly decided English was far too limiting and expanded his commentary to include several very dead languages. He briefly wondered once again how he had managed to find himself in this situation before considering there was no way in hell they could have kept him from it once he had found out what was involved.

Who would have imagined that a chance meeting with one Daniel Jackson would have the US Air Force chasing him down at the university he was currently teaching at and requesting his services as a translator? Staring at the pictures of a few strange tiles and providing the requested translation from ancient Sumerian was not suppose to lead to facing space vampires on another planet in another galaxy. It especially was not supposed to involve watching said space vampires about to eat the chief scientist of the expedition. Whether people wanted to admit it or not everyone knew that McKay was their best chance of surviving in Pegasus much less ever getting home. His death and what it would do to their resident boyscout would practically guarantee that everyone would be blown to hell or worse when the next crisis occurred.

Shaking his head, he fought to bring his thoughts back in order and to focus on the current situation. He could hear the approach of Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and knew that the man would be too late to stop the Wraith from feeding and was briefly thankful that Sheppard was just ruthless enough to understand what he was about to do. That is assuming he was allowed to explain before he was killed. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the pistol, aimed and fired in one smooth motion. A hole blossomed red in the center of his target,

and he smiled grimly as the Wraith dropped Rodney's body.

He heard a disbelieving shout from Sheppard before the sound of his own gun firing at the creature that was now heading his direction was drowned out by the sound of the Colonel's P-90. When the Wraith finally collapsed a few feet away from him, he ignored the voice shouting at him and ran toward McKay's body. Kneeling down, he was abruptly pulled to his feet before he had a chance to check on Rodney. Sheppard's face was a mask of rage and sorrow and it looked like rage was winning. Ducking under the fist that was aimed at him, he caught the man in a wrestling hold listening to the invective aimed at him for a few moments before the words he was shouting over and over again penetrated the mind of the furious man who seemed intent on removing his head from his shoulders.

"What do you mean he's not dead? Look at him, he's not talking; he's not even breathing. You shot him in the heart and you say he's not dead."

Sheppard dropped to his knees and stared in disbelief at his friend all of the anger draining from him as despair took hold. Despair that was replaced by sheer panic at the sudden deep breath and gasping cough that came from what had a moment ago been the dead body of his best friend. Looking down at Rodney, John looked up at the man standing over them with a strange smile on his face as he bent down to help Rodney to his feet.

John for his part lurched to his feet and grabbed a bewildered Rodney in a brief but fierce hug before turning to the stranger.

"I think you have some explaining to do."


	2. Chapter 2

Explanations are Still Required 

To put it mildly, John Sheppard was confused. When the alarm had gone up that the Wraith had shown up, he ordered a retreat to the stargate and headed in the direction that he had last seen McKay. Rodney had an uncanny ability to end up in the worst possible spot and he had been horrified to see McKay in the grip of one of the Wraith. He knew that he was going to be too late to stop it from feeding and despair briefly took hold before being replaced by sheer and unadulterated fury when one of the new science team took aim and shot McKay straight through the heart. The S.O.B. didn't even hesitate and hadn't even bothered aiming at the Wraith until it dropped McKay and started in their direction.

He briefly considered letting the thing have the man who had just killed his best friend when he decided he'd rather be the one to kill the bastard. Once the wraith fell, he ran toward the body of his friend and grabbed the man kneeling beside Rodney pulling him to his feet and aiming a fist at the startled face. John was even more surprised when his prey ducked the fist, caught his arm and had him in an inescapable headlock before he had a chance to react to missing his target. The words the man was shouting slowly registered and he stopped fighting only to be released immediately when the man realized John had regained some degree of control.

Looking at Rodney's body, he turned incredulously to the man he had been fighting with,

"What do you mean he's not dead? Look at him, he's not talking; he's not even breathing. You shot him in the heart and you say he's not dead."

He dropped to his knees as grief took hold and reached toward Rodney's body only to have a strange mix of terror and relief take hold as the formerly deceased took a deep breath followed by a choking gasp and tried to sit up. John tumbled backwards as Rodney was helped to his feet by the stranger who kept smiling that damn irritating mysterious I know something you don't know smile. Scrambling to his feet, he ignored the bloodstains on Rodney's chest and gave the bewildered Physicist a brief hug before turning to the stranger.

"I think you have some explaining to do."


	3. Chapter 3

Explanations Only Lead to More Questions

Rodney McKay wasn't sure if he was having the worst day of his life or the best. They were exploring the ruins on PX-471 when his radio crackled to life and everyone was told to fall back to the gate because the Wraith had been spotted. Unfortunately, they had been spotted too late for him. He had turned to call to the other scientist that had come on this particular mission to make sure the man had heard and listened to the call for retreat. Although he would never admit to it, he knew there were times when he was working on something in which the lab could blow up around him, and he probably wouldn't notice. Rodney wanted to be sure that the other man wasn't the same way. Not that he could even begin to imagine that translating the writing on some ancient ruin could possibly hold the same interest that trying to figure out the unified field theorem could, Rodney briefly acknowledged at least to himself that for someone in the squishy sciences it might be a close thing. Shaking his head, he acknowledged that as chief scientist, he was responsible for the man even if he couldn't remember the guy's name. He couldn't remember the name, but he knew the man's specialty. He was a linguist/anthropologist, and honestly, he would never understand those people. It was like medicine and psychology. Voodoo all the way. Why did they even call it science when everything was so subjective? Physics was a real science. Concrete answers and rules to everything, even if you didn't know what all of the rules were yet you knew there were rules. Muttering under his breath, he had turned to signal the other man and had been beyond surprised and well beyond terrified to see a Wraith standing there as if it had materialized right next to him.

Rodney was almost more surprised when he raised his hand and realized that he had apparently pulled his gun without conscious thought when the alert first went out. Unfortunately, before he could actually fire, he was backhanded and went flying. Surprise turned briefly to amazement when he realized that at least some of the training everyone was being forced to take had actually taken hold. He managed to somewhat roll with the blow and came to his feet having dropped his pocket computer and not his gun. And what that said about the effect one Colonel John Sheppard was having on him, he didn't even want to consider. He sternly reminded himself that, assuming he survived more than another five minutes, he was still going to complain about being forced to train like he had actually been brain dead enough to join the ranks of the military. It was, after all, expected of him. John might suspect that Rodney was actually grateful for the time the Colonel spent with him, especially considering that it might possibly help extend his life a few more minutes, but it was also one of those things that the two of them were never going to admit. John would harangue him into the gym for training, and Rodney would complain nonstop, that is, when he wasn't gasping for breath.

Emptying the gun into the Wraith at point blank range, Rodney cursed at how little effect it had and soon the creature had him by the throat. Gasping, he tried desperately to control the panic that was threatening and swore to himself that if through some miracle he got out of this alive he was going track down explosive rounds for his gun and if they weren't available he'd damn well make some. Military regulations be damned, he wasn't part of the military, and his gun was going to be loaded with them every time he even so much as thought about stepping through the Stargate. In fact, he might take a page out of Sheppard's book and just start wearing the blasted thing everywhere. Having a gun could prove highly useful in the lab the next time Kavanaugh began complaining at him, and it would have the added benefit that he would never again have to wonder, like he was now, if he had any kind of weapon that would actually have an effect on the damn thing that was about to kill him.

Catching a movement out of the corner of his eye, he looked over and saw to his amazement that the skinny harmless looking linguist had a gun drawn and was pointing it at them. The guy had guts if not a lot of brains, and while Rodney was grateful for the attempt, he knew that he was a dead man. At least he hoped he was a dead man. He had no desire to end up a withered husk with barely enough energy to keep breathing. With the Wraith's hand less than a foot from his chest, he knew that not even John, who's crashing and cursing approach he could now hear, would be able to save him this time. Closing his eyes, he felt a sharp pain blossom in his chest before he fell further into the darkness.

Rodney woke with a start and gasped as he sat up amazed that he was actually able to sit up. Marveling at the fact that he was still alive and unaged, he allowed himself to be helped to his feet by the other scientist and wondered why John was sitting on his backside gaping at him like imbecile. Checking himself for damage, he was trying to figure out just how he had apparently escaped unscathed when John's words finally registered.

"I think you have some explaining to do. Who are you? Why did you shoot Rodney, and, not that I'm complaining, but why didn't he stay dead?"

Rodney's head came up in shock at the last comment. He had been staring at his bloodstained shirt with the small precise hole in the middle of it and was getting a bit freaked out.

"Dead, what do you mean dead? I'm not dead. I wasn't dead. I couldn't have been dead. Wait a minute. He shot me." Rodney turned to look accusingly at the stranger. "You shot me. Why would you shoot me and if you shot me why aren't I bleeding? Although, it seems fairly obvious I did bleed some, but why aren't I still bleeding? Why isn't there a hole? What did you do to me and who are you? You're in linguistics. Squishy sciences. It's not like you'd get to take over the sciences even if I was dead." McKay's voice became a mumbling drone as glanced from the hole in his shirt to the Wraith and back again and he whispered to himself "Although, I should be dead?" Raising his head to look at the two people standing in front of him, he swallowed hard and fought to keep his voice even. "Alright, so why am I not dead? Not that I want to be dead, but given the hole and the blood, and oh my God the blood."

Rodney abruptly stopped his tirade and began trying frantically to get his shirt off – something that was greatly hampered by the fact that he had yet to remove his jacket. John stepped closer to help him out of his jacket and heard the mumbling continue. "I thought I was dead. I thought the Wraith was going to kill me so what happens I get shot by one of my own people and apparently made temporarily dead. How can you be temporarily dead?" He looked again at Pierson, "Dead is supposed to be an absolute. How can you be temporarily dead?" There was a brief pause, before Rodney waved his hand imperiously at the other man. "Well, I am assuming you can actually explain something about this whole thing and not just stand there smirking. And what is your name anyway?"

"Oh, I hadn't realized you were waiting for an answer. I rather thought you were going to go right on asking questions and mumbling without giving anyone else a chance to say anything. My name is Adam Pierson, field of study – ancient languages and civilizations. To make it short: Yes, I shot you and yes, you died. Congratulations, you are now immortal. Any further explanations will have to wait until we are no in danger of becoming someone's dinner."

Methos had noticed additional Wraith coming toward them and had punctuated this last sentence by grabbing the other two men and beginning to run toward the comparative safety of the woods. Not that the woods were much defense, but at least they weren't falling down remnants of old buildings that were more likely to crumble than to provide any kind of shelter.

"Immortal, what do you mean immortal?" Methos briefly considered that he didn't have to worry about his new student's lung capacity given that they were running full tilt and the man was still spouting questions. MacLeod would have a field day with this if he ever found out. Methos had sworn to himself a millennia ago he wouldn't ever be someone's primary teacher again and now here he was on another planet in another galaxy stuck with quite possibly the most brilliant and quite definitely the most irritating person he had ever met as his student and a brand new one at that.

"I haven't ascended, no light shows, and that hurt," Rodney was still talking when a branch sprang back and hit his arm. "How can I be immortal if things still hurt?"

"Rodney" John's voice was sharp and Methos was surprised when nothing else was said. He was even more surprised that it worked.

Rodney McKay rolled his eyes, and quit talking but not without one final comment.

"We're not finished yet. I still have questions, lots and lots of questions."


	4. Chapter 4

Questions and Answers

Momentarily safe in a small cave they had uncovered, the three men exchanged uneasy glances wondering who would break the silence. John was so relieved that Rodney was still alive that he decided he really didn't care why his friend wasn't dead, and with a small grin he glanced at Pierson before holding a hand up behind Rodney's back and beginning a countdown. Methos grinned when the questions started before the Colonel had even managed to get to three and focused on keeping his Adam Pierson persona firmly in place. He didn't want to give away too much until he had a better feel for his new student.

"Alright, I've been patient enough. What exactly did you mean by immortal, and before you say anything else, I'm not asking for a dictionary definition here."

"Very well," Methos slipped into what MacLeod called his lecture mode, "immortals appear to be normal human beings until they die the first time."

"Die, you said that before, what do you mean die?" Rodney looked at John, "Does he mean die as in really die?"

Methos decided the best way to deal with the spluttering scientist was to just continue talking and was grateful when the Colonel leaned over and and hissed

"McKay."

Seriously, he was going to have to figure out how Sheppard managed to shut the scientist up just using the man's name. Nobody else on Atlantis seemed to have any luck at all in that area, and whatever the trick was he was going to have to learn it, for the sake of his sanity.

"The first time an immortal dies," Methos was unsuprised when this triggered another exchange between the two men in front of him and grinned at the short conversation.

"First time!" came out in a squeek that was quickly followed by another hissed "McKay."

"As I was saying, the first time an immortal dies, they stop aging."

Expecting another comment at this statement, Methos grinned again when McKay's mouth opened and then shut quickly when Sheppard elbowed him hard in the ribs. At this rate he was never going to get to finish his explanation.

"Alright, as much as I am enjoying the floor show, if you two would just stop for a few minutes, I'll hit the high points of the situation. It's not like there won't be plenty of time later on to go into all of the fine details.

"One, no one knows where immortals come from, and I'm sorry to tell you this if you don't know it already, but immortals are always orphans. Your parents, weren't your real parents."

Methos ignored the muttered "Well that would explain some things."

"Two, as mentioned previously, once an immortal dies they stop aging. You'll have to figure out how you are going to deal with that one eventually, but for now just now that you won't be getting any older – fitter yes, but not older." He continued over the spluttering and chuckling that greeted that comment.

"Three, in the end there can be only one immortal and you are now part of the Game." Stopping the inevitable stream of questions, Methos held up his hand and fixed his new student with a piercing gaze.

"There is still one way that you can die and die permanently – if your head comes away from your body it's over. Sometimes when immortals meet they end up fighting and when two immortals fight, they commonly use swords. Thus decapitation is not unheard of."

This time he decided to allow the question he knew was coming and was only slightly surprised when it came from Sheppard and not McKay who was looking rather subdued as he realized that things were not all roses in his new world.

"But why do they, why do you fight?"

"Why do people normally fight: power, greed, fear. I don't normally fight unless I am challenged and have no alternative. I'm not a headhunter, although there are those who go looking for new immortals as easy prey and others who go looking for old immortals for the power they hold. You see, when an immortal dies permanently, their power, life force, what ever you want to think of it as, is released all at once. We refer to it as the Quickening, and it is absorbed by whatever immortal is the closest. The older the immortal, the more powerful the Quickening and the more powerful the surviving immortal becomes."

"In the end, there can be only one, and that immortal will win the Prize – the knowledge and power of every immortal that has ever lived. The fight for the Prize is referred to as the Game, and it's a deadly Game. With very few absolute rules: One, no fighting on Holy Ground. And that's anyone's Holy Ground."

Methos continued over the question McKay started to ask. "You'll be able to tell if it's Holy Ground, trust me. We're bound to stumble over someone who has a temple or altar or something and you'll be able to feel it then. And two, duels are supposed to be one on one with bladed weapons only. Some take liberties with that particular rule, so it's best to be prepared. That's pretty much it as far as the rules go. I don't think there are any other immortals or preimmortals on Atlantis though, so unless we meet up with some from this galaxy, you won't have to worry about the Game until we get back to Earth. At which point, anyone who thinks you would be easy prey will find out differently."

Methos smiled grimly at the look of surprise that crossed both men's faces.

"But I've never even held a sword, how am I going to defend myself?" came from McKay at the same time understanding dawned on Sheppard's face.

"When's the first lesson? McKay with a sword is something I have to see." Sheppard was smiling, but Methos could see the warning in his eyes. The Colonel wasn't going to allow anything to happen to his friend.

"Initially, I'll be setting up a time to meet with him at least three or four times a week for several hours at a time. If you don't mind, I might take advantage of the time you set up where you've been training him."

Answering the unspoken question he saw in Sheppard's eyes,

"I've been watching him. I could sense he was preimmortal when I first met him, and I thought this day might come. As I said there aren't any other immortals on Atlantis. That leaves me to be his teacher, and I'll be damned if I let one of my students go around unprepared."

John nodded accepting the answer, before vocalizing his next question. "You said you stop aging the first time you die and that older immortals are more powerful and a greater payoff in the Game you play so I'm betting this is considered an unbearably rude question, but how old are you? You study ancient languages and civilizations, I'm betting you're a lot older than you appear to be and that maybe you know so much about them because you spoke those languages and lived in those civilizations."

Methos curse inwardly, he had seriously underestimated Sheppard's intelligence. He had been expecting this question from McKay at some point but had hoped the man would be to caught up in the initial transition that he would have some time to figure out how to respond. He had not counted on the overprotective boyscout of a best friend putting things together as quickly as he had.

"And if I say yes, what will you do?" Methos took a gamble on the honor of the two men in front of him knowing he could fight his way out of the situation but not really having any desire to end up stuck in the Pegasus galaxy with no way home. "If I were that old, it would put you in one hell of a good position when you got back to Earth if you had my quickening added to your own."

McKay rolling his eyes and snorting in disdain was not really the reaction he had expected. "Oh please," McKay's glare was only slightly more piercing than the one Sheppard was no aiming at him. "What the hell kind of person do you think I am? Oh I don't know, here's an idea, lets cut off the head of someone whose expertise we require and who is also the only person who has any idea of what in the hell is going on with me. How stupid do you think I am? Even I were to contemplate doing something so despicable, I assume some of the knowledge of the other person is transferred in this Quickening thing. God, like I want to be a linguist and have my brain cluttered up with all of that. Squishy sciences," McKay shuddered at the thought, "I'd never recover my sanity. Although, if you were Einstein .."

Sheppard chuckled at the look on Pierson's face. Evidently, this was the linguist's first time at being on the receiving end of one of McKay's diatribes. "Not quite the answer you were expecting was it?"

John's comment stopped the flow of invective from McKay and allowed Methos to shake his head and pose another question, "You do realize you have to learn . . ." Methos was cut off and John rolled his eyes. The man deserved whatever he got for asking such another monumentally stupid question.

"Of course I realize I have to learn how to fight. I'm not stupid and I don't want to die the first time I meet up with some asshole that thinks I'll be an easy target. That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. Decapitation is not really the way I thought I would die. Although, it beats being drained by the Wraith hands down. You shot me today, because you didn't know if I would revive old and withered or if I would regenerate back to this age after that Wraith killed me."

A dark shadow crossed McKay's face and having read the mission reports that had been sent back to Earth, Methos was fairly sure memories of a 10,000 year old Wraith and dead friends were haunting the man in front of him.

"I never thought I would say this to anyone, but thanks for killing me. I wouldn't have wanted to end up like that, without even the hope of death to free me. But, we don't know for sure that the Wraith can't kill us, do we. We could end up overloading them or we could end up becoming an all you can eat buffet."

Seeing the acknowledgement on Pierson's face, McKay continued.

"I would also guess that you don't know of any other immortals that have been involved in the Stargate program, so we don't really know how some of the energy weapons might affect us. I would imagine vaporization works just as well as decapitation so I think we need to start adding to the list of things that might be permanently fatal."

Looking down, McKay sighed, shook his head and decided that he had too many additional questions to even begin to address all of them and that if the man in front of him was going to become his teacher he probably shouldn't spend too much more time questioning Pierson's intelligence. Looking up he settled for asking one final question "So, any ideas on where I can find a sword?"


End file.
